All posts tagged Real Estate

A Brooklyn nonprofit group with roots stretching back to the 19th century is cashing in on the borough’s hot real estate market by cutting a deal with a developer to convert its headquarters to new office space and apartments. Read More »

The company recently signed a lease for 180,000 square feet at 85 Tenth Ave., a brick former Nabisco cookie factory by the High Line, according to Vornado Realty Trust, one of the building’s landlords. Read More »

The banking giant on Tuesday notified the city, state and developer Related Cos. that it was scrapping its consideration of a move to build a new, two-tower headquarters on Manhattan’s far West Side, as it considered the array of challenges too great, according to people briefed on the decision.

Among the headwinds: a heightened regulatory environment for banks, the high cost of buying land and building new space, and a public reluctance by city officials to offer incentives, the people said. Read More »

People walk past the construction site of One World Trade Center in New York this month.

JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images

Nine years after ground was broken on North America’s tallest building, One World Trade Center is set to open its doors Nov. 3 to publisher Condé Nast, its principal tenant, according to people familiar with the date.

Just don’t expect any fanfare—at least at first.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which is developing the tower, is planning an official ceremony to mark the occasion later in November, after the Nov. 4 election, representatives of the agency said. The Port Authority is controlled by the governors of the two states. Read More »

In Midtown Manhattan, the extra-slim 432 Park Ave. condo tower is scheduled Tuesday to reach its peak 1,396-foot height and become the tallest residential building in the western hemisphere, 146-feet taller than the roof of the Empire State Building.

But the crowning of the 104-unit tower—which hosts a $95 million penthouse—marks more than just the latest of the super-tall condos for the ultra-rich.

It’s a sign of an inversion going on in the real estate world: The wealthy are clamoring to buy glassy apartments that soar high in the skyline, while the fastest growing companies are demanding spacious low-slung buildings and eschewing tall towers.

For most of their history, skyscrapers in major cities like New York were first and foremost office buildings. From the Woolworth Building to the Sears Tower, they held top corporations wishing to express their success and ambitions to clients and investors in the form of sweeping views on high floors of iconic edifices.

The demonstration by local City Council Member Costa Constantinides and a handful of his colleagues, along with affordable-housing activists, local religious groups and union members, signals the project will likely have a rocky path to final approval by the City Council. It is the first major public split on a land-use issue between the left-leaning council and Mayor Bill de Blasio.

“This doesn’t capture real Astorians,” Mr. Constantinides said. “We have to make sure that real Astorians can aspire to live here.” Read More »

Workers are dismantling the familiar GE logos from atop 30 Rockefeller Plaza Tuesday. By late Tuesday morning, only parts of two letters were still visible on the north side of the Midtown structure.

The dismantling on the north side should be complete by Tuesday night, and the GE signs on the west and south sides of the building will be removed in the next few weeks, according to an NBCUniversal spokeswoman.

As The Wall Street Journal reported in June, Comcast, the new owner of NBCUniversal, sought approval from the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission to replace the logo atop one of the city’s most iconic skyscrapers.

Pedestrians are reflected in the glass doors of a Saks Fifth Avenue store in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Tuesday.

Bloomberg News

The announcement Wednesday that a Saks Fifth Avenue department store will open in Brookfield Place is the latest sign that shopping in the city’s financial district is going upscale. Other tenants that Brookfield Property Partners L.P. has signed at the retail complex that it’s overhauling include Burberry, Emenegildo Zegna and Salvatore Ferragamo.

Until recently, stores in Downtown Manhattan primarily served commuters and office workers. Many of the biggest retailers in the area, like Century 21, were known partly as discounters. Only a few luxury stores, like Tiffany and Hermes have opened in the Wall Street area.

But demand for luxury goods has been increasing as downtown’s residential community has expanded and a growing number of advertising and media firms have begun moving to the area. Also tourism has increased, particularly since the opening of the Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum. Read More »

All apartments and homes with a current market value of more than $5 million would be subject to the tax of up to 4 % a year, with primary residences of New Yorkers exempt.

The proposal, made by the Fiscal Policy Institute, will be considered by the city, Mr. de Blasio said. “It’s a new proposal, so we’ll assess it, and then once we have a better sense of it, we’ll have more to say,” he said Tuesday. Read More »

The artist known as Mr. Brainwash, best known from the 2010 Banksy documentary “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” has designed an outdoor mural that is being installed in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg.

In the latest example of corporate real estate owners upping their buildings cool factor by hiring graffiti artists, LCOR has enlisted Mr. Brainwash to design a piece for 250N10, a new rental building in Williamsburg.

The mural faces Roebling Street and features a tribute to John Augustus Roebling, an architectural pioneer and the designer of the Brooklyn Bridge, and his son Charles Roebling.

Mr. Brainwash will also add his signature motto “Life is Beautiful” to one of the pieces. Read More »